Uncle Jim: Blog

The new chapters have been sent to the Moderators for posting.

This week's chapters open with Grace, Margie, and Joe going to town to check on the availability of seeds for planting this year. At the hardware store a local woman insults Joe, and Margie immediately takes offense to her attitude with a statement of principle regarding all of the O'Connells and their employees. She uses a little Magic to enforce her deceleration.

On leaving the store, the women go to look at dresses and encounter a runaway buggy. Later on meeting up with Joe, he has a surprise for them. On returning home, there are clothes to be mended and bread to be baked. Margie helps Robert close the portals for the night.

Joe brings the cats in at supper time, and Margie returnes them to the stable after eating following introducing them to Macha for them to become acustom to her.

The road work and the survaying proceed rather quickly, and the chickens that they had ordered arrive early in March. Following St. Patrick's Day, Margie's Cousin arrives with a tractor from the O'Connell Realm to plow Owen's fields.

Margie and Robert secure a contractor to build the new houses and she arranges to have the hole for the basement excpvated by a relative.

Owens tenent farmers are impressed with his already tilled fields.

Enjoy these two chapters for now. More next week.

Keep Well,
uncle jim

The new chapters have been sent to the Moderators for posting.

This weeks chapters open with the discovery that the music room in Grace and Owen's house is much smaller than the one in the Founder's house and too small for the dinner guests to dance in. They depart for the Hall in the O'Connell Realm while Margie collects the music system and demonstrates it for Grace and Owen.

Grace is shocked by the size of the Hall and by how close the people there dance. Later there is Irish dancing, but several of the main characters aren't familiar with them. Lessons are arranged.

Sunday there are questions about their wedding rings at church. Monday morning the surveyor has complaints and questions, but later offers advice. Later the contractor who will be paving Plantation Lane arrives and explains how it will be paved.

That afternoon, Margie and Robert prepare to clear the fields of the weeds and brush. Grace, Owen, and Joe accompany her as she makes her preparations, and Robert deals with the weeds and brush.

Tuesday, Mr. Hickey, the surveyor has questions about the cleared fields and the road work. On Wednesday, discussions turn to what crops to plant. Grace and Joe prepare to leave for town while Owen cleans up his shop. Later he goes out to check on the road work and Mr. Hickey. On returning, he talks with Robert about portals and tractors.

Enjoy these two chapters, more next week.

Keep Well,
uncle jim

The new chapters have been sent to the Moderators for posting.

This weeks chapters open with Margie and Robert returning to Grace and Owen's house with books on Magic, Magic powered lamps and wedding clothing for Grace and Owen.

Later that night Margie realizes they will require a wedding ring set and promises to get them one before returning home while the others study Magic.

Margie and Robert return the following night with Celeste and Frank. She explains about Magic Ranks and admits that she is a Tiger and Robert is a Dragon before they transform into their Were-forms.

On Friday she returns with her Mother and Celeste to help Grace bake the wedding cake and other goodies. That evening Joe learns that Grace and Owen aren't married yet. Saturday morning Grace attempts to heat water by Magic.

Later on Saturday morning, Margie, her Mother, and Celeste arrive to help prepare the meal that will be served following the wedding at two that afternoon.

At the chapel that afternoon, Grace meets Uncle Seamus, the minister who will be marrying them, and Margie's Father who will escort her down the aisle. Following the wedding there are pictures, a lot of pictures, to be taken. After the reception, there is the wedding dinner with the Senior O'Connells. Grace has several questions about what had occurred that day.

Enjoy these two chapters, more next week.

Keep Well
uncle jim

The new chapters have been sent to the Moderators for posting.

This weeks chapters open with Margie and Robert attending a meeting with the Senior O'Connell leaders, where they are briefed on conditions in the Forth Reality and what to expect there in the coming year of 1907.

The meeting is interrupted by the appearance of the Eternal Flame who points out a number of things that they had overlooked or not considered and IT assigns them a Clan wide mission in addition to informing them where they are to set up their base of operations.

Margie and Robert reveal their wedding date at the meeting, and later they shop for needed items for the wedding. Following New Year's and it's party things are calmer, but on Saturday the 12th, Robert is very nervous. Margie takes him to Founder's House so he can take a flight to sooth his nerves. While he flies, Margie prepares for her wedding that afternoon.

Near the end of January the Eternal Flame visits them with gifts and instructions. On the afternoon of February 12th, Margie and Robert transfer to the house at the end of Plantation Lane to meet Grace and Owen. Margie explains how the Clan can help the pair and about their Talents and the use of Magic. She also informs Grace that she is pregnant.

Later they are joined by Joe who thinks she is a ghost. She explains what the Clan would like to do in Statesboro, and the land they wish to acquire, some of it from Grace and Owen to build houses on.

She also arranges for Grace and Owen to be married quickly. Celeste is a bit upset when she learns what conditions are like in 1907. Margie and Robert prepare to return to Grace and Owen's house that evening with books on Magic and Magic powered lanterns.

Enjoy these two chapters. More next week.

Keep Well,
uncle jim

The opening chapters of the new story have been sent to the Moderators for posting.

Magic Ink VII opens with Margie's return to the O'Connell Realm. She is depressed by the fact that she needed to remove the use of Magic from the former Reality of Less Magic. The following day she and her friends learns about the time difference between the Fourth Reality and the O'Connell Realm.

Her Relatives are upset when she reveals that she is pregnant, but the Eternal Flame appears and settles things. Uncle Aengus decides that they need a Clan meeting to hear what Margie and her friends did to make it the Reality of No Magic.

The Clan dinner is held two days later. Following eating, Margie gives an account of what occurred in the now Reality of No Magic (Magic Ink VI), and calls on each of her friends to explain their part in what happened. Following her explanation, some of her Relatives want to see Robert in his Dragon form, and to see him fly, which he does the following day.

Christmas is only a couple of days after this, and on the 26th, she and Robert learn in a meeting what the new mission for the Clan is in the Fourth Reality, and that she and Robert will be the first to establish contact.

Later she and Robert determine when they will be married.

A few words about the story:
There are actual businesses and people from Statesboro's past that are named in the story who actually lived during the time that the story takes place. Some are well known historic figures, but others are just normal people. Others are people that I made up from my imagination.

With regards to the time frame in this and the previous two stories there is something that I should mention, as it really amazed me.

Magic Ink VI occurs in the year 2508 in the month of April, which was selected because of the timing of the moon phases.

Grace and Owen was written to occur in January of 1907, but for no particular reason.

You can imagine my surprise when I started Magic VII to discover that the days and dates in 2508 and in 1906 matched exactly after the first of March. The year 1906 was a leap-year so January and February didn't match.

I was really amazed that two years selected at random and without any connection would actually be in sync with each other. Perhaps the Eternal Flame inspired me, or it could have been just dumb luck.

Enjoy these two chapters. More next week as the story has been completed, but the editing lags behind as usual.

Keep Well,
uncle jim